Kephart

Mr. and Mrs. George Gordon, Casselberry, announce the engagement of their daughter, Linda Marie, Winter Park, to Richard Wayne Kephart, Orlando, son of Mr. and Mrs. David L. Kephart, Akron, Ohio. The wedding is Dec. 12. She graduated from Lake Howell High, Maitland, and attended Seminole Community College, Sanford. He graduated from North High, Akron.

MR. KEPHART, Palm Avenue, Center Hill, died Saturday, Oct. 22. He was a retired steamfitter in the construction industry. Born in Allegheny, Pa., he moved to Center Hill from Boca Raton in 1976. He was Catholic. He was an Elk and a member of the Local 725 Steamfitter's Union, Miami. Survivors: wife, Olive; son, Kenneth R. Jr., Fort Lauderdale; daughters, Barbara Shaw, Center Hill, Joan Tressler, Boca Raton; five grandchildren. Purcell Funeral Home, Bushnell.

MOUNT DORA -- An artist from as early as she could remember, Shirley Kephart spent her life creating art and helping others develop their talents. She taught at Eustis High School, Lake-Sumter Community College and in Winter Garden. She also ran an advertising and public relations firm in Mount Dora. "I remember my first-grade teacher saw me working at an easel and said, 'You're going to be an artist,' " Kephart recounted during a 2002 interview with the Orlando Sentinel. "Of course, that didn't mean much to me in the first grade."

LOST YEARS. An Army deserter who believes he ''threw 30 years of my life away'' by fleeing to East Germany in 1959 said the changes in the United States have left him amazed. ''The first time I saw one of those,'' Arnold Kephart said, pointing to a microwave oven, ''I thought it was a TV.'' Kephart, 53, fled to East Germany to avoid punishment after wrecking an Army truck. In an interview at his brother-in-law's home, Kephart said he regretted his decision to enter East Germany almost immediately.

DESERTER. An American soldier who fled to East Germany in 1959 for fear a truck accident would land him in the stockade saw his family for the first time in three decades - then was taken away as an Army deserter. When Arnold Kephart landed at Omaha's airport Tuesday, he saw his 86-year-old father and a sister for a moment before being led away on the warrant for desertion in West Germany. Kephart, 53, originally from Langdon, Mo., fled to the East bloc with a girlfriend and wasn't able to return to the West until after East Germany threw open its borders, said his lawyer, James Martin Davis.

LIFE STORY. An Army deserter who spent nearly 30 years in East Germany has sold the rights to his life story for a possible television movie, his attorney says. Producer Joseph Wouk and actor Stephen Macht formed Freedom Entertainment of Beverly Hills, Calif., to produce the story of Arnold Kephart, an Army private whose airport arrest when he returned home earlier this year attracted attention worldwide. Kephart was arrested on a 30-year-old desertion warrant when he returned for a family reunion in Nebraska.

The lobby of the First Union Towers building in Orlando is housing a one-woman show by Shirley Kephart, a former Eustis High School teacher.``Scenes of Shirley'' features a display of 20 very different pieces.``This show reflects my versatility,'' she said. ``There is something for everybody.''Kephart said she has included florals and rural scenes, nonobjective and surrealistic pieces and several three-dimensional works. Pastel is her medium of choice, but she also works in mixed media and watercolor.

The location and destination of a barge stacked with 3,000 tons of New York garbage and rejected by four states and Mexico were unknown Monday, the Coast Guard reported.Coast Guard aircraft flew two sorties over the Gulf of Mexico, one out of Corpus Christi, Texas, and another out of Clearwater, in search of the tugboat and barge but could not find it, Coast Guard spokesman Fred Kephart said.The aircraft searched areas 100 miles northwest of the Yucatan Channel, separating Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula from Cuba, and 150 miles east of the Mexican coastal city of Tampico to find the scow.

Orange City -- A man killed Monday as he attempted to cross Enterprise Road on his bicycle has been identified by police as 20-year-old Andrew Griebler of Orange City. Orange City police said Griebler was crossing the four-lane highway near the Fawn Ridge subdivision just before 5 p.m. when he was struck by a southbound white Chevy Malibu. Officer Chris Pitzer said the accident is still being investigated, but that the car's driver, Brandon Kephart of Orange City, was not cited. "It looks like the bicyclist was at fault," he said.

Every once in a while, a quiet but profound book successfully nudges its way into the noisy literary marketplace. Now comes Beth Kephart's wondrous, sweet prose, Into the Tangle of Friendship: A Memoir of the Things That Matter. Kephart is nothing short of a virtuoso when it comes to dissecting the many friendships people experience. It's fair game to be called a "chick" book, but certainly everyone will be able to relate. "This story, I know, is everybody's story" she writes, "for the capacity and desire for friendship are scripted right into our genes."

The Lake County Cultural Affairs Council is planning to give $4,000 to local organizations for arts and cultural projects scheduled between Oct. 2 through Sept. 30, 2001. The money will be awarded in the form of $500 grants. Arts groups, local governments, schools or other nonprofit organizations involved in arts programming in Lake County are eligible for grants. Deadline for grant applications is 5 p.m. Aug. 21. Funds may not be used for administrative or general operating costs. The cultural affairs council receives funds generated in Lake County by the sale of "State of the Arts'' automobile license tags.

The lobby of the First Union Towers building in Orlando is housing a one-woman show by Shirley Kephart, a former Eustis High School teacher.``Scenes of Shirley'' features a display of 20 very different pieces.``This show reflects my versatility,'' she said. ``There is something for everybody.''Kephart said she has included florals and rural scenes, nonobjective and surrealistic pieces and several three-dimensional works. Pastel is her medium of choice, but she also works in mixed media and watercolor.

- One of Finland's top glass artists, Oiva Toikka, will visit Scan Design's Winter Park store on Wednesday to chat with collectors and sign his works.He is known for his flock of mouth-blown glass birds, and this year he is introducing a collection of glass eggs. Both are available at Scan Design stores. Prices range from $50 to $500.Toikka started making the birds in 1981 for the Finnish glass industry's 300th anniversary. He now has 17 distinctive birds in the iittala line, including the rainbow tern (above)

MR. KEPHART, Palm Avenue, Center Hill, died Saturday, Oct. 22. He was a retired steamfitter in the construction industry. Born in Allegheny, Pa., he moved to Center Hill from Boca Raton in 1976. He was Catholic. He was an Elk and a member of the Local 725 Steamfitter's Union, Miami. Survivors: wife, Olive; son, Kenneth R. Jr., Fort Lauderdale; daughters, Barbara Shaw, Center Hill, Joan Tressler, Boca Raton; five grandchildren. Purcell Funeral Home, Bushnell.

The Lake County Cultural Affairs Council is planning to give $4,000 to local organizations for arts and cultural projects scheduled between Oct. 2 through Sept. 30, 2001. The money will be awarded in the form of $500 grants. Arts groups, local governments, schools or other nonprofit organizations involved in arts programming in Lake County are eligible for grants. Deadline for grant applications is 5 p.m. Aug. 21. Funds may not be used for administrative or general operating costs. The cultural affairs council receives funds generated in Lake County by the sale of "State of the Arts'' automobile license tags.

Every once in a while, a quiet but profound book successfully nudges its way into the noisy literary marketplace. Now comes Beth Kephart's wondrous, sweet prose, Into the Tangle of Friendship: A Memoir of the Things That Matter. Kephart is nothing short of a virtuoso when it comes to dissecting the many friendships people experience. It's fair game to be called a "chick" book, but certainly everyone will be able to relate. "This story, I know, is everybody's story" she writes, "for the capacity and desire for friendship are scripted right into our genes."

LIFE STORY. An Army deserter who spent nearly 30 years in East Germany has sold the rights to his life story for a possible television movie, his attorney says. Producer Joseph Wouk and actor Stephen Macht formed Freedom Entertainment of Beverly Hills, Calif., to produce the story of Arnold Kephart, an Army private whose airport arrest when he returned home earlier this year attracted attention worldwide. Kephart was arrested on a 30-year-old desertion warrant when he returned for a family reunion in Nebraska.

LOST YEARS. An Army deserter who believes he ''threw 30 years of my life away'' by fleeing to East Germany in 1959 said the changes in the United States have left him amazed. ''The first time I saw one of those,'' Arnold Kephart said, pointing to a microwave oven, ''I thought it was a TV.'' Kephart, 53, fled to East Germany to avoid punishment after wrecking an Army truck. In an interview at his brother-in-law's home, Kephart said he regretted his decision to enter East Germany almost immediately.